Thoughts on culture and events by author and illustrator Christopher R Taylor

Friday, January 13, 2012

WORD AROUND THE NET

"What an infamy that Ronald Reagan approved it! We can thank him for our annual Hate Whitey Day."-Lew Rockwell

Now that's a big gun. Its a 25 mm rifle that fires a special shell that counts the number of rotations as it flies and explodes at a special set point as determined by a laser range finder on the gun. That allows soldiers to effectively fire around and behind obstructions, and the technology can be scaled up to any size, such as artillery. Now bad guys hiding behind a wall are not safe.

Muslim violence against Christians in Nigeria continues. Twenty were killed when a group gathered to mourn the deaths of Christians slain the day before as Muslims opened fire with AK-47s. Muslim leaders promised more violence to come, as Christians declared they would defend themselves. No arrests have been made. Its doubtful the police are even looking into the matter.

According to several scientists, the world is overall cooler. Alan Nicholl at the Ginsborne Herald writes

The latest temperature graphs from the Hadley Centre and the University of Alabama, Huntsville show declining temperatures from 2002. The graphs show that a quarter of the 20th century increase has disappeared.

Meteorologist William DiPuccio, USA, states: “The heat deficit shows that from 2003-2008 there was no positive radiative imbalance caused by anthropogenic forcing, despite increasing levels of CO 2 . Indeed, the radiative imbalance was negative, meaning the Earth was losing slightly more heat than it absorbed.”

Doctor of Meteorology Joe D’Aleo, USA, states; “Given the current global cooling is now in its eigth year, declining ocean heat content at least in its fifth year, sea level rises which have slowed or stopped, record rising Antarctic ice extent and rapidly recovering Artic ice since the 2007 cycle minimum, a sun in a deep slumber. Increasing evidence that CO2 is a harmless gas, that in reality, is a highly beneficial plant fertiliser.”

2011 is nearly a degree cooler than it was in 1999, according to the alarmist data. In other words: its getting cooler, not warmer. And since the data we have is scattered and almost exclusively in the northern hemisphere, its not really certain what is going on to begin with. But by all means, lets totally change the world's economy and roll back technology to the 19th century.

According to a new book, Michelle Obama was in almost constant conflict with White House advisers about spending and her behavior. Things got so bad that Rahm Emmanuel refused access to her at top level meetings, which begs the question: why was she there to begin with?

Still, the first lady is angry that people think she's an angry black woman. Maybe if she didn't seem so unhappy all the time that wouldn't be the perception. Her arched eyebrows don't help, nor does her rhetoric or the many images of her being upset in public. She is perceived as being angry because she is so often seen as being angry, arrogant, or contemptuous.

Finally, the White House appears to be done giving out waivers to companies and even entire states who wish to exempt themselves from the Government Health Insurance Takeover Act. Most of the recipients were union members, and the total waiver count was 1231. If its such a great, critical thing, why do so many people want out? Thousands more asked to get waivers but were denied. After unemployment, the economy, and reversing the Obama administration's imperial stunts, repealing this crap would be on my presidential platform, and repeated every single speech. Yet all the GOP candidates can do is attack each other.

Mark Steyn questions one of the left's most common self-described qualities: empathy.

The Left’s much-vaunted powers of empathy routinely fail when confronted by those who do not agree with them politically. Rick Santorum’s conservatism is not particularly to my taste (alas, for us genuine right-wing crazies, it’s that kind of year), and I can well see why fair-minded people would have differences with him on a host of issues from spending to homosexuality. But you could have said the same thing four years ago about Sarah Palin — and instead the Left, especially the so-called feminist Left, found it easier to mock her gleefully for the soi-disant retard kid and her fecundity in general. The usual rap against the Right is that they’re hypocrites — they vote for the Defense of Marriage Act, and next thing you know they’re playing footsie across the stall divider with an undercover cop at the airport men’s room. But Rick Santorum lives his values, and that seems to bother the Left even more.

Never mind the dead kid, he has six living kids. How crazy freaky weird is that?

This crazy freaky weird: All those self-evidently ludicrous risible surplus members of the Santorum litter are going to be paying the Social Security and Medicare of all you normal well-adjusted Boomer yuppies who had one designer kid at 39. So, if it helps make it easier to “empathize,” look on them as sacrificial virgins to hurl into the bottomless pit of Big Government debt.

Their empathy has the same limits as their tolerance and diversity: until you disagree with their faith.

Personally, I don't think Ron Paul is really in the presidential race to win, he's in it to try to get his ideas a big platform and reach more people. If he'd avoid the really goofy parts of his platform, that would be terrific. The problem is the more you hear from the guy the more uncomfortable you become. The latest is his criticizing Newt Gingrich for voting against Martin Luther King jr day, and using his support as proof he's no racist. Except the voting record shows he voted against the creation of this day (as I would). Being a goofy conspiratorialist is one thing but lying and lacking integrity is another. Ron Paul runs on being different than the other guys, but he's only different in some of his policy choices, not his personality, trustworthiness, or consistency.

Medicare and Food Stamp fraud has always been a problem but it seems to be on the rise under President Obama. That's probably due more to the poverty and economic situation in America than any particular policy of the administration. But this is definitely Obama policy:

As if to prove the point, the Obama administration—despite its rhetoric about getting tough on fraud—is behaving pretty much as I predicted. In mid-November, the administration announced two anti-fraud efforts, one to prevent fraudulent claims for power wheelchairs and scooters, and another to eliminate “pay and chase” for some Medicare claims in some states. Not two months later, under “heavy provider opposition,” Medicare has delayed these demonstrations “until further notice.”

Well if you're President Obama, the more people on welfare, the better the country is, because then we're all having income redistributed more evenly.

Announced as a realistic thinker among academics and even called "the adult in the room" to calm down the excitable Obama staff, William Daley was considered a major asset because he had so much business acumen. He'd help turn the economy around and get things on track.

Well he's resigning as White House Chief of Staff. Gone from the stories of his leaving are the praising of all his tools to turn the economy around and his alleged maturity. As Ace of Spades says, "Obama moves from triumph to triumph."

Rush Limbaugh, Sarah Palin, and a lot of other pundits (including myself) have said, Romney is the Democrats' preferred candidate. Well it looks like they'll get their wish. They have stories and spin all set up, their whole campaign for destroying Romney is lined up and ready to fire. He's the 1%, Obama is 99%; he's rich, Obama was brought up middle class; he's wall street, Obama is a man of the people; Romney fired people - Obama created 312,401,203,124 jobs with his stimulus bill, etc etc. The problem is people don't believe President Obama, and if polls are to be trusted, want him out of office at an astonishing rate. And remember: Carter wanted to face Reagan (he was a dumb actor, he said crazy things, he was old...). That didn't work out so great. I don't want a President Romney, but I don't want a second term of President Obama even more.

Planned Parenthood claims to be all about pregnancy, family planning, and assisting people with having kids, but the truth is, over 90% of the pregnant women who the group deal with are getting abortions. They aren't about life and planning parenthood, they're about getting rid of babies and reducing pregnancies.

One of the big stories of the week was a Halloween party held in 2009 by the Obama administration during the height of the recession (which economists claim has ended). The problem was that the party was basically covered up; the press was asked to not talk about it, so they didn't: bad optics, as they say. People would see an opulent party by the Obamas and see it for exactly what it was, which would look bad in the unemployment line. What bothers me more, though, is that several of the guests known to be there such as Johnny Depp were not listed in the White House visitor logs. Who else is not being listed? And isn't that, you know, illegal?

Greece, if you're wondering why on earth its in such bad economic shape, take a look at a topographical map of the country. Its basically one big mountain range, with not a lot of industry. And yet they felt so comfortable with their income, the government has been spending money on things like disability payments to pedophiles to help them get psychological treatment. Because of the compassion, you see. If they have to bankrupt the entire country to help out a baby raper, well that's a price well worth paying!

According to reports, the Obama administration has been meeting secretly with Taliban leaders, likely as a lead up to withdrawing from Afghanistan after throwing up his hands and saying "Gosh, its too hard, I gave it my best shot, time to retreat and surrender!" Also part of this deal seems to be the release of key Taliban leaders from Guantanmo Bay. President Obama is a tough negotiator: the US retreats from Afghanistan in total failure and wasting the lives of soldiers, but he's forcing the Taliban to give up... um... it will come to me...

At least he hasn't given up the Panama Canal.

Part of the Obama administration's big green energy push was a requirement that the fleet cars for government agencies had to get a certain percentage of their fuel from biomass ethanol. Because these agencies failed to do so, they are now required to pay fines totaling more than $6,800,000. Why didn't these agencies use the fuel? They couldn't get any: there isn't any to get. This was part of the cunning plan by the Obama administration to leverage a market for this fuel, but the market demand simply didn't prompt labs to produce the stuff. We are in, as Glenn Reynolds likes to say, the best of hands.

Greenland isn't so green these days, and it hasn't been since the Medieval Warm Period ended. In fact, despite the hysterical claims of glacier loss, Greenland is actually packing on more snow the last few years. Actually, its been doing so for decades, according to Rutgers University. Glaciers are largely made of slowly compacted snow build up, compressed into ice.

Average down payments for homes varies from state to state, and at Bubbleinfo, Jim Klinge has a chart showing all fifty states and the average for each, courtesy Lending Tree.

The red colored states are the top ten below the national average, dark green the top ten highest. In a total coincidence, those are also red states in terms of voting tendencies.

Did you know? J.R.R. Tolkien was considered for a nobel prize in literature for the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Except when it came out, the books were widely panned by literature types, considered crappy and poorly written:

jury member Anders Österling wrote that the novel 'has not in any way measured up to storytelling of the highest quality'.

They were also not impressed with Robert Frost or E.M. Forster. The winner that year no one has heard of or read for decades: Ivo Andric. Well, this is the Nobel Prize committee.

Lest you think the Justice Department was so much more competent and on the ball under Presdient Bush, in 2007 the DEA laundered millions in drug money, then lost track of most of it. At least nobody was killed with guns deliberately handed to murderous cartels.

How on earth this happens I can only speculate about, but the Hostess company, makers of Twinkies and Ho-Hos is filing for bankruptcy. Part of their problem is that the cost of nearly every ingredient that goes into Hostess products has been going up rapidly, but people just won't pay very much for crappy yet tasty pastries like Twinkies. And like many companies, they are unionized and have problems with pensions and union costs to deal with as well.

This will shock you, I know, but apparently in the New Hampshire primary there was voter fraud. Impossible, you say? Of course, who would possibly think that powerful forces would want to cheat the system in order to sway the entire primary season through the absurdly oversignificant tiny New Eastern state's election? Yet apparently it took place. No I'm not talking about how tons of Democrats voted in the GOP primary (for Ron Paul and Jon Huntsman), I mean the dead people who were allowed to vote in the election.

Meanwhile, Florida is striving to have an earlier election than the Republican and Democratic parties care for it to, and because they've moved their primary up against the wishes of the GOP, they're being penalized for it. The state is going to lose half its delegates in the Republican National Convention and there are more penalties being applied:

Under the resolution, the national party will make sure Florida's delegates have poor seating and poor hotel options -- as in, hotels that are not close to the Tampa Bay Times Forum, the convention venue. According to an RNC official, the delegates will also be limited in the number of guest passes they can hand out.

Who cares about the voters there, really. Party power is what matters, not voters.

There was an election in Milwaukee recently, and that state allows voters to register the day of the election. Yes, that means its basically impossible to stop fraudulant votes, but what matters is the proper (Democrats win) outcome, really. The local Tea Party group looked over the data and found a great deal of problems with the same-day registrations, according to Brett Healy at Big Government:

The group, Wisconsin Grandsons of Liberty, found errors on more than one third of all Election Day Registration forms completed for the April 5, 2011 election in Milwaukee County.

“We discovered 3,739 forms with errors,” said Larry Gamble, the groups’ spokesperson. “That 33.7% error rate is high enough to question the entire election process and raises doubts about having the accuracy and accountability required to properly manage elections.”

Accuracy is overrated, especially if it interferes with the proper outcome of an election.

Mike and Chantell Sackett were told that they can't build in an area they own because it has been declared specially protected wetlands. They went through the usual appeal and question process with the Environmental Protection Agency but the decision was unchanged. So they took the case to court, at which point the EPA insisted that their decisions could not be challenged in court because they're an executive branch agency, and thus courts have no jurisdiction. Sadly for them, the US Constitution says in the fifth amendment that "no person shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law." The US Supreme Court is hearing the case.

Solyndra is going under, despite the huge influx of "stimulus" cash the White House threw at it. Yet that isn't stopping them from handing bonuses out to workers. Who at a company like this possibly has earned bonuses? Well this is not an uncommon practice in a company that is closing down but wants to retain workers until the end. If you're on this sinking ship, bailing while you can for another job is very attractive, so companies will hand out bonuses. Except this time they're doing it effectively on our dime.

Finally, the biggest problem with calling what we're experiencing a 'recovery' is that things aren't really getting better. Take the unemployment numbers, for example. Technically the rate, according to the U3 official count, went down last month. But since president Obama took office, the total number of workers in the labor force has dropped by more than a million. In fact, since the recession officially ended in 2009, almost a million workers have dropped out of the work force. Getting those jobs back is a major economic problem that this anemic "recovery" is simply not giving us. In fact, we keep bleeding jobs and workers in the labor pool. Until that reverses, there isn't really any recovery at all.